Fortis 5: Cooling performance of the Fera 5 at a lower noise level?
After a very long time, the Polish company SilentiumPC is pushing the numbering of the Fortis series coolers as well. These are slightly larger than the successful Fera coolers, but they are still single-tower designs. The new Fortis 5s have a lot in common with the excellent Fera 5, so I guess it finally worked out for SilentiumPC with this line as well. Because in the past Fortis coolers have always fallen short of expectations, and quite significantly.
Fortis coolers were somewhat neglected by SilentiumPC, but now they are reviving them again. I tested the previous Fortis (3) on ExtraHardware.cz six long years ago. I remember this cooler and all previous Fortis very well and the three was one big disappointment. You can find the period test on Cnews.cz – SilentiumPC Fortis 3: a remake you wouldn’t expect.
This may also be one of the reasons why the Poles didn’t develop these coolers for years – the reluctance of not being able to build on the effective design of the successful Fera 2 v2. The Fortis 3 cooler was significantly larger, but still had lower cooling performance. The amount of material available is one thing, but more important is how efficiently it is used. And with the Fortis, it was never at the level it was with the Fera. The fact that the Fortis coolers were trying to find their footing was evidenced by the significant inter-generational changes in shapes.
However, SilentiumPC has come a long way since the Fortis 3 and we believe that this time it will be a little different. Especially when SPC talks about the synergy effect, which sounds like the individual parts of the design will be in much better harmony than we know them from the old tests (the twos and threes). However, cooling performance will probably not be significantly higher than the Fera 5. In fact, the TDP is stated to be the same for both coolers – 220 W. However, it is at this level for the Fortis 5, but also the Fortis 5 Dual Fan, which will certainly be more powerful than the variant with only one fan.
It can be assumed that Fortis 5 coolers will be quieter, or that they will have a higher cooling performance at a similar noise level. In fact, a larger 1400-rpm fan is used, which will definitely be more powerful at the same noise level. We can say “certainly” because the Fluctus 140 PWM (ARGB) blades with serrated leading edges are the same as the Fluctus 120 PWM (ARGB) from the Fera 5 (ARGB), only here they are slightly larger. The Fortis 5 has some 150 grams of heatsink to spare, and instead of four heat pipes, the heat is distributed by six.
Compared to the Fera 5, the Fortis 5 is 4 mm taller at 159 mm, 17 mm deeper (144 mm) and up to 30 mm wider (107 mm on this axis). The long edges of the fins are equally jagged, their surface is again dotted with small protrusions to increase the surface area, and the base is also with direct contact heatpipes, which are also in contact with each other (i.e. without the typical aluminum padding). A little different, naturally, is the passage of the heatpipes through the fins.
In addition to the DIMM slots (for memory), the heatsink is also dialed away from the PCI Express slots so that it does not interfere with the graphics card in the first slot. After all, it is a deeper heatsink with exposed fan clips and collisions could occur with some combination. The fact that the heatsink is dialed away from the PCIe slot means it is in closer proximity with the VRM coolers on the motherboard. SilentiumPC therefore does not guarantee compatibility with some Intel LGA 1700 motherboards, and warns of possible complications. For a complete list, see this link, which redirects you to silentiumpc.com.
Fortis 5 coolers are available in three variants. Two variants are with a single Fluctus 140 PWM fan (SPC306) or Fluctus 140 PWM ARGB (SPC308) if you want brightly coloured lighting. And then there’s a third variant with two fans. What’s strange about it is that the 140 mm is only the front fan, the rear one is smaller – 120 mm (Fluctus 120 PWM). So hopefully it won’t be it’s weak point.
Supported Intel platforms are, in addition to LGA 1700, LGA 1200/115x, 775 and from HEDT the LGA 2066 and 2011(-3) . From AMD sockets, AM4, AM3(+), AM2(+) or FM1 are supported.
The recommended retail price for the basic Fortis 5 with one Fluctus 140 PWM fan is 44 euros. The illuminated fan comes at a 12-euro premium and the most expensive, at 56 euros, is the dual-fan variant codenamed SPC307. The Cooling.pl store already has the coolers in stock, and availability here will apparently depend on the flexibility of specific retailers. But with a bit of luck you should be able to get your hands on the first units later this year.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
